But there are two manuscript versions of the vision between 1831 and the published account in Orson Pratt’sRemarkable Visions in 1840 which indicate that it underwent a remarkable evolution in detail. In the earlier, which Joseph dictated in 1831 or 1832, he stated that “in the 16th year of my age ... the Lord opened the heavens upon me and I saw the Lord.” By 1835 this had changed to a vision of two “personages” in “a pillar of fire” above his head, and “many angels.” In the published version the personages had become God the Father and His son Jesus Christ, and the angels had vanished.
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